The Black Chip Just as fate smiles on those that persevere against the odds and accomplish their goals, fate also frowns upon those that cause trouble and fail their desires. When the posse royally screws up an adventure and ends up leaving things worse than when they started, they earn a “Black Chip”. Some examples of screwing things up include raising a fear level, a major public disgrace for the posse, letting tough opponents get away, getting involved in the wrong side of a dispute and gaining major notoriety for their magical or bizarre talents which would draw the attention of the Tombstone Epitaph or government agency.

When a posse member draws a Black Chip from the fate pot, fate frowns upon the group and bad things are soon to come. Remove the Black Chip from the game just as you would a used Legend Chip. The posse member who drew the Black Chip does not get to draw a replacement chip. During the session, something bad will happen to the posse and that something will most likely notice the player who drew the Black Chip first if possible. For example, if the posse earned the Black Chip because they angered, attacked and fled from the notorious bandit “Six-gun Sanchez”, then maybe he came looking for the posse for revenge. And Mr. Sanchez most likely walks into the local saloon just as the unfortunate individual who drew the Black Chip was coming down the stairs...alone. Sanchez will most likely take out his pent-up aggression on right then and there, or follow the individual back to the posse before he begins causing trouble (depending how deserving he is and what kind of mood the Marshal is in). Say the posse earned the Black Chip because their huckster gained a reputation as a practitioner of the black arts, then maybe a team of Pinkertons or a posse of bounty killers will be aiming to take him dead or alive. Only the players may draw Black Chips. The possibilities are endless, but any way you look at it, the Black Chip is an omen that something wicked this way comes...

As an alternative, if the Marshal draws the Black Chip from the fate pot, he may treat it as a Legend Chip for himself. During that session, something bad will happen just as if a posse member had drawn it. Under this system, if the Marshal draws a true Legend Chip he returns it to the fate pot and does not redraw; therefore only the posse may have Legend Chips and only the Marshal can keep and use Black Chips. There may only be one Black Chip in the fate pot at a time.

A good way to mark the chips is to spray paint some of your extra blue chips. Use gold paint for a Legend Chip and black spray paint for a Black Chip. A permanent marker will show on a gold painted chip to mark it so that you can remember how the posse earned it. The posse won’t have more than one Black Chip, so the Marshal can decide which is the most interesting to keep in the fate pot.